Notebook

You are expected to keep a notebook of your work that you may have to present to your instructor at the completion of the course. The notebook should contain all homework assignments and any other information relevant to the course. Writing in the notebook should be done neatly by hand and drawings should be used whenever possible to illustrate your work. Notebooks will be graded according to completeness, neatness and general overall quality. Your notebook will reflect the amount of time and care you have put into this course.

1. Read Chapter 4, Population Dynamics of Forest Insects, of your textbook Forest Insects: Principles and Practice of Population Management and make notes and drawings in your notebook.
2. Do the problem below and send your answer to your instructor.
3. Go through Session 2 on the Internet and make notes in your notebook.

Problem

You want to borrow $1000 dollars to pay your tuition. One bank charges 10% interest compounded annually and another 0.1% interest compounded daily. In order to decide which bank to use, determine how much you would owe each bank at the end of the year. First, determine the finite rate of growth of your debt (geometric growth rate) and then use this quantity to calculate the total owed at the end of the year using the geometric growth equation. Try to do this on your own but if you can't check out http://www.sosmath.com/algebra/logs/log5/log51/log51.html

Questions

Questions similar to those below may appear on the first examination. You can practice your knowledge of this session by answering these questions and checking the answers against the information in the reading or Internet.

1. Why is the study of population dynamics important?
2. What is a population?
3. What is population density?
4. What is the basic environment?
5. What is a favorable environment?
6. When is a population in equilibrium?
7. What determines the equilibrium density?
8. What is density dependence?
9. What is negative feedback?
10. How does negative feedback affect population dynamics?
11. What is positive feedback?
12. How does positive feedback affect population dynamics?
13. What is the 1^st principle of population dynamics?
14. What is the 2^nd principle of population dynamics?
15. How does the 2^nd principle affect population dynamics?
16. What is the 3^rd principle of population dynamics?
17. How does the 3^rd principle affect population dynamics?
18. What is the 4^th principle of population dynamics?
19. How does the 4^th principle affect population dynamics?
20. What is an extinction threshold?
21. What is an outbreak threshold?
22. What is an epicenter?
23. Why do most forest insects never become pests?
24. What causes population cycles of larch budmoths?
25. What causes population cycles of Douglas-fir tussock moths?
26. How do site factors affect tussock moth outbreaks?
27. Why do insect populations often cycle in synchrony?
28. What is a population eruption?
29. What causes population eruptions of the spruce budworm?
30. What causes population eruptions of the mountain pine beetle?
31. How do eruptive outbreaks spread?
32. What is a gradient outbreak?
33. How can you recognize a gradient outbreak?
34. How can you recognize an eruptive outbreak?
35. What is the difference between a pulse gradient and a sustained gradient?
36. What is the difference between a pulse eruption and a sustained eruption?
37. Why do mountain pine beetle populations erupt while fir engravers do not?

E-mail your instructor to let him know that you have finished this session: berryman@mail.wsu.edu

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